With this week’s sentencing of Sam Bankman-Fried to 25 years for fraud, financial crimes are once again in the news. But are convictions in high-profile, white-collar cases always based in truth? In the case of SBF or Bernie Madoff, perhaps so. But in the case of Michael Milken, the once-presumption of guilt seems to have been radically reconsidered over the years, as Milken increasingly looks like he was the victim of prosecutorial overreach more than anything else.
This case has been strengthened by Richard Sandler, author of Witness to a Prosecution: The Myth of Michael Milken. As Milken’s close friend and legal counsel, Sandler offers an insider account of Milken’s ordeal, illustrating how an overzealous prosecution converged with a media frenzy to shape perceptions in both the courtroom and the court of public opinion.